No doubt there are smarter ways to do this, but my method is outlined after the jump.

First, you need to make sure that the script you want to run is not saved as a stand-alone app. iCal can’t run scripts saved as apps. So in this case, when you load up Zak’s script into Script Editor, make sure that it is saved as a script (with the “scpt” extension).

Or Command-Click on the file on Zak’s site, select the “Download linked file” option. Start TextExit. Drag the saved file onto TextEdit and then select File > Save As… and save it somewhere memorable as GTDMail.scpt.

Now, create an event in iCal at the time that you would like to run the script. I do mine at 9 am. If I get to work before then, I let myself goof off and do some blogging.

You might be an early bird. Or more disciplined. Pick the time that suits.

Then you need to modify the event’s setting a bit in the drawer on the right.

In the repeat section, set it to run daily and to never end. Assign it to the right calendar.

Then in the alarm section, select the “Run script” option. Select “Other…” and navigate to the location in which you have saved the script. My GTDMail.scpt is stored in my Home Directory in ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Mail to keep things neat and tidy.

If you have it saved as an app you will see it there, but greyed out. Go back to the start and make sure that you have it saved as a script.

When you are done, the details for the whole event should look like this.

And in your iCal window you will see a relentless procession of repeated events, each one ready to serve up the contents of the Tickler file for the day:

The line also serves as a useful visual reminder that it is time to start work!

You’re done.

There are other ways to do this too. Every morning I get an email of BBC news headlines at 8 am. I could create a rule in Mail.app matching that email that would run the script. In fact, now that I come to the end of a long entry, that’s probably a better way, since Mail.app can run scripts saved as stand-alone apps.

Oh, well. At least you now have the general idea and will be able to set up the Mail rule easily by selecting “run AppleScript” from the “Actions to be performed” section. Similar Posts:

• Event Maker: iCal events, to dos from an email
• Schedule delayed to dos in iCal
• Scripts to automate the Mail.app Envelope speed trick
• AppleScript to create and run a GTD ‘Tickler file’
• Fix for Leopard Mail’s broken new mail alert

It is a collection of 43 folders (Hey, how about that?) and is managed by a secretary or PA if you are lucky enough to have one, who sorts through the right folder each day and gives you the things you need to do in time to do them.

I don’t have a secretary. In my earlier postings on trying to run GTD in Apple Mail, I simply created a mailbox that I called a ‘Tickler file’. Mail Act-on dumped all my “deferred” things into it and I had to remember to sort them through manually at the start of every week. But no more!

Zak Greant has written an AppleScript that will create and manage a complete set of Tickler folders for you.

The first time you run the script, it creates a full set of folders for you as you can see from the screenshot.

Then you file away the emails containing tasks that you need to do later away into the appropriate week, day and month folder. I’ve thought about creating rules under Mail Act-on to do this, but I think it is doing to be easier in the end to drag ‘n’ drop them from my ‘deferred holding pen’ mailbox into the right folders.

Run the script every day, and it sorts through your folders and delivers the stored emails (flagged and marked as unread) into the @INBOX each day as you need to deal with them. Excellent.

To make this even more bullet-proof, I have created an event in iCal which will run the script for me every morning at 9 am.

Armed with this script, kGTD and Scott’s Morrison’s Mail Act-on and MailTags plug-ins, I have all the tools I need to implement a really good GTD system on my Mac.

Of course, I still need the will to use them and the intelligence to use them well, but that’s another story. Software can’t help there.

Zak has also written some other nifty applescripts like email2ical, which ?ɬ† la the mail2iCal scripts and the fuhgeddaboutit script, creates events in iCal from Mail.app messages.Similar Posts:

• Run an IMAP Tickler file via a Cron script
• Make an iCal event run an AppleScript
• Apple Mail Rules and IMAP folders
• Sorting mailbox order manually
• Mail2iCal 1.5: Events, to-dos by AppleScript